Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate

(a)

notes that:

(i)

the suffering of the ‘comfort women’ in the 1930s and 1940s was an appalling episode in Japan’s history and that of the Asia Pacific region, and that there can be no disputing the facts of what occurred and the pain that it caused to those affected,

(ii)

the position of successive Australian governments has been that the 1951 Peace Treaty, which Australia signed, firmly drew a line under the crimes committed by Japan before and during the Second World War, for which many Japanese were rightly tried, convicted and sentenced,

(iii)

Japan has made great progress since 1945 in recognising and atoning for its past actions, and for many decades has been a major contributor to international peace, security and development, including through the United Nations,

(iv)

the 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono on the ‘comfort women’ issue (the ‘Kono statement’) fully and officially acknowledged the complicity of the Japanese Government and military in the 1930s and 1940s in a coercive system of sexual slavery in occupied territories, and

(v)

the Kono statement has been reaffirmed by subsequent Japanese governments and prime ministers, including by Prime Minister Abe;

(b)

commends the Japanese people and Government for the steps they have taken so far to acknowledge and atone for Japan’s actions in the 1930s and 1940s; and

(c)

encourages the Japanese people and Government to take further steps to recognise the full history of their nation, to foster awareness in Japan of its actions in the 1930s and 1940s, including in relation to ‘comfort women’, and to continue dialogue with those affected by Japan’s past actions in a spirit of reconciliation.